behavioral targeting
“ISPs are tracking their customers’ Internet usage and selling that information to advertisers, an industry practice” according to Channelweb
below is Behavioral targeting – From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Behavioral targeting or behavioural targeting is a technique used by online publishers and advertisers to increase the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Behavioral targeting uses information collected on an individual’s web-browsing behavior, such as the pages they have visited or the searches they have made, to select which advertisements to display to that individual. Practitioners believe this helps them deliver their online advertisements to the users who are most likely to be influenced by them.
Behavioral marketing can be used on its own or in conjunction with other forms of targeting based on factors like geography, demographics or the surrounding content.
Examples of behavioral targeting in advertising targeting systems include: Predicta BT, AdLINK 360, Adaptlogic, Avail, Boomerang, Criteo, DoubleClick (prior to 2002)[1], Leiki, nugg.ad, prudsys, ValueClick [2], and wunderloop.
Behavioral Targeting allows site owners or ad networks to display content more relevant to the interests of the individual viewing the page. On the theory that properly targeted ads will fetch more consumer interest, the seller may ask for a premium for these over random advertising or ads based on the context of a site.
Network Behavioral targeting
Advertising Networks use behavioral targeting in a different way to individual sites. Since they serve many adverts across many different sites, they are able to build up a picture of the likely demographic makeup of internet users. An example would be a user seen on football sites, business sites and male fashion sites. A reasonable guess would be to assume the user is male. Demographic analyses of individual sites provided either internally (user surveys) or externally (Comscore \ netratings) allow the networks to sell audiences rather than sites.[3] Although advertising networks used to sell this product, this was based on picking the sites where the audiences were. Behavioral targeting allows them to be slightly more specific about this.
This service is offered by (among others):Front Porch,[4] Tacoda, Burst, NebuAd[4], Phorm, ValueClick.
Concerns
Many online users & advocacy groups are concerned about privacy issues around doing this type of targeting. This is a controversy that the behavioral targeting industry is trying to contain through education, advocacy & product constraints to keep all information non-personally identifiable or to obtain permission from end-users. AOL created animated cartoons in 2008 to explain to its users that their past actions may determine the content of ads they see in the future.[5] Canadian academics at the University of Ottawa Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic have recently demanded the federal privacy commissioner to investigate online profiling of Internet users for targeted advertising.[6]
[edit] Notes and References
1. Olsen, Stefanie (2002-01-08). “DoubleClick turns away from ad profiles”. CNET News.com.
2. Arun, Fred (2008-07-21). “Two Large Ad Networks Embrace Behavioral Targeting”. clickz.com.
3. iMedia Connection article on Behavioral Targeting for Networks in the USA [1]
4. a b Rodgers, Zachary (2008-01-29). “Toby Gabriner to Helm ISP-Based Behavioral Ad Firm Adzilla”.
5. Story, Louise (March 10, 2008). “AOL Brings Out the Penguins to Explain Ad Targeting”. in Story, Louise (March 10, 2008). “To Aim Ads, Web Is Keeping Closer Eye on You”, The New York Times, The New York Times Company. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
6. “Academics want watchdog to probe online profiling” (2008-07-28).
